(Disclaimer, there is no question really in the thread below. I just wanted to share my experience at the start of my talent program with some enlightened folks: you. Maybe I can understand a little more what's going on.)
Friday late afternoon at my kitchen table. I just finished my online time-limited IQ type test. One of the assessment tools my Talent Program came up with. Boy it was tough. Calculating interest rates, solving some "logical" complete-the-series exercise within a few tens of seconds. I need a beer.
I did not think they would test our brains, or cognitive abilities. I thought that when nominating us, they would assume we were clever or clever enough. As Malcom Gladwell explains in "Outliers", people who strive are not necessarily the highest on the IQ scale, but they need a minimum. Like height in basketball.
I got an email about a month ago that I was "nominated" for the new talent program. My boss got the same email. He was as surprised as I was. He did not know that was coming. Our HR is not very good at communicating.
I looked at the "to" field and found names of colleagues all around the company and the globe. 47 persons for a 5000+ company. In my function (operations) we are only 4. It could be luck.
It's a 2 year program. The menu is:
2days offsite to evaluate us. (I know there is a podcast for that) + some follow up
Mentoring (there is also a podcast for that)
Work in different location/function for 3-12 months
Mgmt training
Some transversal project we will have to run
I'm excited
Sometimes we make our own
Sometimes we make our own luck. Obviously you are doing something well (or you probably wouldn't be on MT :) )
Congratulations!
Earlene
DiSC: 6127
High Potential programs
Congratulations! I'm just finishing a (shorter term, 6 month) similar program. I got to take advantage of it to attend both EMC and ECC conferences, led by Mark.
We did several different kinds of testing that showed up in different ways during the offered training, which surprised me a bit too. One that turns out to be quite useful was a program in "Thinking Styles" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herrmann_Brain_Dominance_Instrument). It's a 4 quadrant system orthogonal to DiSC, but interesting when applied to the Trinity (especially feedback) along with DiSC. Or at least it will be when I get good at it.
What I found most useful about the program (other than the EMC and ECC!) was the opportunity to shadow people in other departments, and get a better idea of what it is that they do.
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Dennis Sherman
7-1-1-7
Congratulations!
This sounds like an exciting opportunity for you. I wish you all the best in this program!
Steve
DiSC 7114